DVD region code

• 1. The 1997 Lockout

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  In 1997, the DVD Forum introduced a digital rights management technique known as region codes. This system was designed to allow rights holders to control international distribution of DVD releases. The goal included managing content availability, release dates, and pricing across different territories. Manufacturers were required by the American DVD Copy Control Association to incorporate Regional Playback Control firmware into their devices. These players would only play back DVDs encoded to match their specific region code. Discs without any region code could still be played on these locked machines. However, region-free players existed commercially from the start. Many existing players could also be modified to ignore the coding entirely.

• 2. Eight Geographic Zones

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  The world was divided into eight specific regions for DVD distribution purposes. Region 1 covered the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. Region 2 included Europe except Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, along with Greenland and Japan. Southeast Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau formed Region 3. Latin America and Oceania made up Region 4, excluding certain French territories. Africa, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Central Asia, South Asia, Mongolia, and North Korea comprised Region 5. Mainland China was designated as Region 6. MPA-related DVDs and media copies in Asia fell under Region 7. International venues like aircraft and cruise ships used Region 8. Some discs carried multiple codes or all codes simultaneously. A disc marked Region 0 or ALL could be played worldwide. The Baltic states used both Region 2 and Region 5 codes due to historical Soviet ties before switching to Region 2 under EU law. Mexico and most of Latin America often featured both Region 1 and Region 4 codes.

• 3. NTSC Versus PAL Conflicts

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  DVDs were formatted for two distinct regional television systems: NTSC and PAL/SECAM. NTSC operated at 480i resolution and 60 Hz refresh rates. PAL and SECAM ran at 576i resolution and 50 Hz refresh rates. These analog color signal formats applied to the digital domain despite being originally designed for analog contexts. An NTSC player with composite video output would only produce signals matching that format. Most DVD players sold in PAL countries could play both kinds of discs. However, almost no NTSC player could play PAL discs without a converter box. European region 2 users could import Japanese discs without obstacles since they shared the same region code. Differences existed in pixel aspect ratios between 720 by 480 and 720 by 576 resolutions. Display frame rates also varied between 29.97 Hz and 25 Hz. Computer-based software and hardware generally handled both standards seamlessly. Blu-ray players remained backwards compatible with both NTSC and PAL DVDs.

• 4. Hacks And Countermeasures

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  Region-code enhanced technology emerged as a retroactive attempt to prevent playback on non-region-1 machines. The scheme deployed on only a handful of discs contained a short video loop showing a world map. This loop was coded as regions 2 through 6 while the main program remained Region 1. When played in a non-region-1 player, the machine defaulted to playing the map loop instead of the movie. User controls were disabled during this loop, trapping viewers indefinitely. A region-free player tried different regions until one worked, defeating the RCE trap. Playing a normal Region 1 disc first allowed subsequent RCE protected discs to function properly. Many multi-region DVD players automatically identified matching codes or allowed manual selection. Some manufacturers supplied information on how to disable regional lockout entirely. Software rippers could circumvent RCE restrictions transparently. Older computer drives used RPC-1 firmware allowing any region play. Newer drives enforced coding at the hardware level using RPC-2 firmware. Users could change their drive's region code up to five times before it became permanent. Resetting the counter required third-party software tools or reflashing to RPC-1 firmware.

• 5. Price Fixing Investigations

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  The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned that enforcing region-coding might violate the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. A December 2000 report advised consumers to exercise caution when purchasing DVD players due to import restrictions. The ACCC investigated whether Australians paid higher prices because copyright owners prevented competition from cheaper countries. Sale of region-coded DVDs was illegal in New Zealand under its Copyright Act 1994. The European Commission began investigating price discrimination as of the 14th of March 2001. They questioned if resulting price differences violated European competition law. The Washington Post highlighted inconvenience for travelers wanting to legally purchase DVDs worldwide. Students studying foreign languages faced barriers accessing authentic media. Immigrants struggled to watch films from their home countries. Region 1 discs sometimes contained digital manipulations to secure an MPAA rating not present on other regional versions. This allowed local censorship through technical means rather than content editing alone. In 2012, a Sydney Morning Herald report confirmed region-free players were legal in Australia despite US Free Trade Agreement exemptions.